Pilot flying from St. Paul to New York dies in plane crash

A pilot flying from St. Paul to a New York airport died when his single-engine plane crashed into a mobile home Saturday afternoon in northern Michigan during a snowstorm, said Kalkaska County Sheriff Bill Artress.

The single-engine Cessna 206 had taken off from St. Paul's Holman Field at 10:16 a.m. for the airport in Glen Falls, N.Y., and encountered trouble near Traverse City, Mich., said FAA Spokesman Tony Molinaro.

The plane circled in the sky about 18 miles southeast of Traverse City, dipped its wing, clipped some trees, then crashed through the roof of a mobile home around 2:15 p.m. CST. The pilot, a 47-year-old man from Lake George, N.Y., was dead at the scene, Artress said.

He was the only person on the plane. Two occupants of the mobile home were unhurt. They had stepped outside to shovel snow minutes before the crash, Artress said. The home was a total loss.

The crash is under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA.